Weather is lovely, wish you were here: Nilesh Pawar’s picture of a magnificent sunset in Fort Chapora, Goa.

The competition opened on 29 January 2010, and since then over 130,000 images have been uploaded to the Lonely Planet site by travellers from almost every part of the globe including North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Antarctica.

Over one million people have viewed the online exhibition designed to take visitors on a pictorial tour of the planet.

Mumbai-based photographer Sreesailam Pasupula, 33, was declared the winner with his striking image of a performance at Pushkar ka Mela, the world’s largest camel fair in Rajasthan, India. First prize is a round the world trip for two.

Well it’s one up on a donkey ride: This young boy with a far from camera shy companion in Nam Tha Luang Namtha, Laos was photographed by Anthon Jackson

Alastair Swan captured the magical evening light on Li River in China’s Guangxi Province as fishermen plied their trade with the help of specially trained cormorants.

Watch the birdie: Jean Spector spotted this bird admiring its own reflection in Ramat Gan, Israel

Award-winning photographer and competition judge Richard I’Anson said that, after much robust discussion, Sreesailam’s photograph won the day by ‘capturing a fleeting moment that will feel so familiar to travellers in countries around the world, transcending the specific location, in a simple yet graphic composition that perfectly embodies the day to day adventure of the travel experience through seemingly ordinary encounters.’

Another one of the the judges, Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler, said Sreesailam’s image captured the adventurous free spirit of Lonely Planet: ‘Our winner combined two elements of India which many Lonely Planet travellers will have experienced – dramatic Rajasthan wall murals and colourfully dressed Rajasthani women. Sreesailam’s photo brings the two together, one reflecting the other and with the leader in the group striding forcefully forward, like a match to the mirror.’

An early morning balloon ride over Guilin, China pictured by Chong Keat Kim

Cosied up: Two seals were caught snuggling in the Galapagos, Ecuador in this photograph by Sandra van der Niet

Eddy van Ryckeghem created this timeless image of late afternoon in the Merzouga sand dunes, Morocco.

Tony wrote one of the earliest Lonely Planet titles, Across Asia on the Cheap,with his wife Maureen Wheeler in Sydney in 1973, following an epic journey from Turkey, through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to India and finally Nepal. It became the quintessential bible of the Hippie Trail through the 1970s.

These days the popularity of the guides extends far beyond the kaftan-clad community and the familiar blue covers can be seen peeking from practically every traveller’s hand baggage.